Yesterday, the NFL was able to distract the world from the current labor negotiations with the news that kickoffs might get a drastic makeover; one that would involve pushing touchbacks to the 25 and killing the wedge via a kickoff from the 35-yard-line.

According to Marvin Lewis, Bengals coach and a member of the Competition Committee, there's a new proposal on the board that's got some tweaks.

Of course, it's entirely possible that even this "tweaked" proposal might not pass; Lewis, via the Bengals' Twitter account, said that he "still sees a battle" for getting the new, tweaked rules to garner approval from the needed 75 percent of owners.

"Sometimes as coaches we need to take a look at the whole picture," Lewis said.

He's right. However, as members of the Competition Committee, Lewis and others also need to make sure that when they take a look at the bigger picture they're not killing off an important part of football and/or handicapping certain teams by overextending a particular set of rules.

A strong throwing session from Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert could push him to the No. 1 overall pick.

According to a Twitter note from Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune, Gabbert completed 44 of 49 passes and characterized "at least three" of the incompletions to drops by the collection of D-II receivers organized for the workout. With Missouri having no draft-eligible receivers, he was left to rely on others, rather than former teammates to catch his passes.

A source on the scene characterized Gabbert's workout as a "8" when asked to score it on a scale of 1-10. The source pointed out some "little issues intermediate and deep." But also noted "good velocity and accuracy on the move."

Gabbert's "little issues" on deeper passes wasn't unexpected. This was a primary concern based off of the largely horizontal (rather than vertical) passing he was asked to do while operating Missouri's spread attack.

In demonstrating good footwork from under center and accuracy while on the run, Gabbert helped alleviate concerns about his ability to translate to a more traditional pro-style offense.

As expected, the Missouri Pro Day was well attended by NFL decision-makers, including Carolina head coach Ron Rivera, Jets' head coach Rex Ryan, Ravens' head coach John Harbaugh, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, Bengals' head coach Marvin Lewis, and Jaguars' head coach Jack Del Rio.

Curran reports, via a "well-informed source," that Ocho "has lost his nerve and work ethic."

Burn. This probably means that Curran can expect an offer to rumble at some point from Ochocinco. Oh, and that the Patriots aren't interested in inking Chad, which was actually the point of the whole thing in the first place.

One interesting trade Curran does mention, though, is getting Steve Smith from the Panthers for a third-round pick.

I'd actually argue that the Panthers need to get a touch more than that, particularly because the Patriots currently hold the Panthers' second-rounder (the first pick in that round), and, unless Carolina's front office is completely devoid of human emotion, they'd probably like to recoup close to as much as they gave to New England last year so they could draft Armanti Edwards. Who, um, hasn't quite panned out like Smith.

First off, thebelief around the league is that Palmer’s threat to retire if untraded is not an empty one. The Southern California native has two young kids, tens of millions in the bank and a wife who doesn’t like the Cincinnati area. The Bengals know this.

More directly, look at the recent behavior of Cincy’s coaching staff. We wrote in a post about Cedric Benson’s likely return that new offensive coordinator Jay Gruden casually referred to Benson as someone who could carry the ball “20 to 25 times a game if we need to if we have the young quarterback.” When Gruden mentions a “young quarterback”, he’s not referring to the 31-year-old Palmer.

On Tuesday, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis attended Auburn’s pro day workout. The Bengals currently hold the fourth overall pick in the draft. Auburn only has two early round draft prospects this year: defensive Nick Fairley and, of course, quarterback Cam Newton.

It’s possible Lewis was there to see Fairley (though the Bengals don’t figure to be in the market for a defensive tackle). It’s also possible that Lewis just happened to be in the area (other southern schools have pro days this week). It’s possible he was there for smoke screening purposes (never hurts to have teams drafting below you think that you might surprise them with your selection).

Or it’s possible that the Bengals are listening to all those who continue to whisper about Palmer actually making good on his threat to retire.

Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio thinks the previous injuries suffered by former Colts S Bob Sanders were fluky and he doesn’t judge them to be a current problem. That's good news for the free agent Sanders.

A few weeks after releasing former offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski and replacing him with Jay Gruden, the Bengals have hired Eagles QB coach James Urban as the team’s WR coach, which had been vacated by Mike Sheppard (who went to Jacksonville to be the Jaguars QB coach).* *Does all of that make sense?

Urban had been in Philadelphia the past seven years, and he got much of the credit for Michael Vick’s resurgence this year.

“I am very excited to be able to bring Jim to Cincinnati to work with our receivers,” said head coach Marvin Lewis in a statement. “He brings us a wealth of knowledge in an offensive system very similar to what (new offensive coordinator) Jay Gruden is installing for us. This is a very good fit for our team.”

The move makes sense. Since Gruden plans to install a West Coast attack for the Bengals – and get away from Bratkowski’s vertical attack – it seems like a good idea to bring in a coach like Urban, who has spent so much time in Andy Reid’s system.

Dan Pompei of the National Football Post has some interesting info in his Sunday Blitz though, especially the fact that he hears the apathy in Cincy is a "one-way street." (Running east from Palmer to Brown.)

Reportedly, the team is "taking Palmer off the hook" for his shoddy performance last year and pinning his lack of success on the people that surrounded the quarterback offensively. Pompei writes that the team will "try to rectify the situation by making sure the locker room understands Palmer is the only leader."

Now, without pointing fingers, um, "Terrell Owens." It's also possible that the Bengals could dump Chad Ochocinco, although it might be difficult to put him in the "best situation" with just youngsters Jordan Shipley and Jermaine Gresham serving as receiving options.

Bottom line is this: the Bengals truly believe that Palmer hasn't lost a step performance-wise (arm strength, etc.) and is capable of returning to Pro Bowl form in 2011.

We'll get to the "enough" thing in just a second, but it's worth noting that he also said "I need to fight my head coach" during the interview, which makes the possibility of a(nother) name change, well, okay, it's still the most interesting thing that happened, but him saying he wants to fight Marvin Lewis on national television is reasonably spicy.

It's also worth noting that he hasn't officially filed the paperwork yet, so don't go burning that Chad Ochocinco ordering that Chad Johnson jersey just quite yet. But, presuming that the Ocho Era truly is coming to an end, let's see how that worked out for the wideout.

Name

Years

Avg Catches

Avg Yards

Avg TDs

Chad Johnson

7 ('01-07)

79.9

1,195

7.0

Chad Ochocinco

3 ('08-10)

64.0

806

5.7

Now, your argument might be, "Hey, jerk! Have you seen Carson Palmer the last three years???" or even "You know he got OLDER, right?"

Fair enough -- but please note that his pre-Ocho average includes his rookie season when he only started three games and only caught 28 passes for 329 yards and one touchdown. (AKA what might be a productive year for him in 2011, zing!)

Take that season out, and while named "Chad Johnson," my man averaged a stupid 88.5 catches, 1,339.3 yards and eight TDs over six seasons.

After that, well, yeah, you can argue reasons other than "more concerned with celebrity than performance" all you want, but it can't be 100 percent coincidence that his production plummeted when he decided to change his name.